Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto began her career working as a civil engineer for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. She developed computer models to optimize hydroelectric energy generation along northern California river systems and prepared testimony for Supreme Court hearings related to the relicensing of hydroelectric facilities. Ambassador Hamamoto worked in the telecommunications industry and provided strategic guidance to both GTE Corporation and GTE Hawaiian Tel. In the 1990s, Ambassador Hamamoto was an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York and San Francisco and at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Los Angeles. She managed equity and debt financings for large corporate clients, including energy, telecommunications, media, health care, financial services and consumer products, and provided financial advisory services related to mergers and acquisitions, sales/divestitures, restructurings and spin-offs.

Ambassador Hamamoto was a member of the Board of Trustees at The Branson School and the Marin Country Day School. She was a member of the Board of Trustees at Ring Mountain Day School where she served as Board Chair, Finance Committee Chair, Site Committee Chair and Strategic Planning Committee Chair and played a leadership role in establishing the school’s K-8 program and campus. She also served on the Stanford University Athletic Board. Ambassador Hamamoto received a B.S. and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She is married and has two children.